Personally, I’m a pen and paper gal. I’ve tried a number of various, and truly wonderful, applications and software products. However, each time I try to get with the times, I end up coming back to good old pen and paper.
This is true for my fiction writing, boy do the words flow onto the paper. They’re much slower to come on my laptop. I’ve also found it to be true for my organizational needs.
Take tracking submissions to agents and editors.
Many people, and smartly so, use software or applications like Querytracker.net. Querytracker not only helps you track who you’ve sent submissions to, they also have a wealth of knowledge about who is accepting what right now and all the contact information. (They do recommend you back up your information by cross referencing with another source. However, it’s a great start and end point.)
But alas, I get muddled in the process and end up procrastinating rather than simply entering the necessary information. I have found a planner with space for notes each day/week/month does the trick. I write down who I sent a manuscript or query too and what I sent. Then, if I need to remind myself to follow up, I just jot a note in Outlook and I’m good to go.
Yet, there’s more a writer needs to do. What about accountability?
Many serious writers, meaning they fully intend to be published one day or are already published, have daily word count quotas. How do you track your success rate? Do you just keep it in your head? Do you use a software program or organizer?
I go right back to my handy planner and simply jot down the chapter or pages I’m working on and my word count for the day. It’s kind of like a food journal or calorie counter. I can see what days I blew it and hold myself accountable.
So what about you?
What tools do you use to track your submissions and hold yourself accountable? What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Geeky as I am, got to admit and agree with you sometimes plain old pen and paper works for me. But I am so spoiled by Google, the ability to search for anything is awesome so now, I use a combination really.
Livescribe pen love it. I get the good old fashioned pen and paper feel, use etc but the ability to search my writing (and a lot more) is great.
For idea capture, I use Evernote because sometimes inspiration and ideas come not just from text. It could be a picture, a sound bite and from anywhere. Since Evernote works on the phone, it’s quite easy to capture all these bits and pieces.
Hi Lynette,
I’ve been eyeing that Livescribe pen for years! In fact, I’ve probably put it in my shopping cart a number of times but I’m never quite sure if it’s the right thing for me. Honestly, if it could take my handwriting and convert it into Times New Roman 🙂 it would be perfect but it can’t, right?
Just wanted to update here. There is a software that can take your handwriting and convert it to text. It’s called MyScript. I’ve recently purchased the Livescribe pen and tried out the software and it works pretty well (I have to clean up my handwriting a bit).
Haven’t used the pen for fiction writing yet but that’s the plan. I’ll let you know how it goes!
If i don’t write it down, I won’t remember.
I rely on pen and paper to keep me organized and to clarify my thoughts.
But for a while, I was convinced that I needed to use the technology readily available to me (Outlook and a Crackberry) to keep track of my important deadlines, follow ups, etc.
Outlook is perfect for work related deadlines, Crackberry keeps my personal life on track – but it’s quite frustrating going back and forth from system to system…what if I’m missing something? What if I accidentally put a personal to-do in Outlook and forget to sync to the phone?
It became so tiresome, I bought a pocket calendar for my purse.
My journey is nowhere near complete…I have yet to cure myself of my famed “Post-it Note” addiction, and I still find myself spending double time recording to-dos in multiple places.
I wish for a tablet pc that serves as a notebook and calendar FIRST, gamer pad and wifi hub second. Put a decent looking, pen sized stylus in the back, and I’m a happy camper.
It’s hard to be a pen and paper girl in a paperless world.
Miera,
Boy can I relate:-D. I actually do have a tablet and I tried to use it for tracking things but I ended up going right back to pen and paper. Though, my tablet (an iPad) is amazing for actual writing projects. Thanks for your comment!